Canine distemper is one of the most serious viral diseases of dogs. The disease is highly contagious and is characterized by severe morbidity and high mortality. Modified live canine distemper virus vaccines are currently available in the United States. They do provide protective immunity to distemper, but such vaccines may revert to virulence, may cause immunosupression following vaccination, and have been shown to cause mortality in non-canine species. There is therefore a real need for an efficacious, inactivated canine distemper virus vaccine, which eliminates the serious problems associated with modified live canine distemper virus vaccines.
It is therefore a primary objective of the present invention to develop an inactivated canine distemper virus vaccine which substantially eliminates the serious problems, and risks, associated with modified live canine distemper virus vaccines.
It is another primary objective of the present invention to develop a canine virus vaccine containing inactivated canine distemper virus, which although inactivated still substantially retains its immunogenicity.
Another objective of the present invention is to develop a method for inactivating canine distemper virus.
Yet another objective of the present invention is to develop a preferred method of inactivating canine distemper virus which nevertheless allows the virus to retain its immunogenicity, with the method involving either exposure of the virus to an inactivating effective amount of binary ethyleneimine or alternatively to exposure of the virus to an inactivating effective amount of furocoumarin in the presence of long wavelength ultraviolet light.
It is a still further objective of the present invention to develop a method and composition for effective vaccination against canine distemper virus which contains an inactivated canine distemper virus, preferably which employs one of the above described procedures.
The method and manner of accomplishing each of the above objectives will become apparent from the detailed description of the invention which will follow hereinafter.